Whose baby is this? Newborn found dead, floating in water off Florida coast

Florida authorities want answers after a newborn girl was found deceased, floating near the Boynton Beach Inlet in Ft. Lauderdale on Friday.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that officials with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office stated the baby, who appeared to be around one to two weeks old, was found by firefighter Chris Lemieux about 75 to 100 feet from the Boynton Beach Inlet shore on Friday afternoon. Lemieux stated he was out fishing with friends when they accidentally motored over the infant, who was already deceased.

Police think the infant likely came from Broward County. Capt. Steven Strivelli of the sheriff’s special victims unit indicated that the baby seemed to be of a mixed race, with black hair and dark skin. However, he added that authorities are still working on identifying the infant’s ethnicity. She had no clothing on when found.

“It’s gut-wrenching, and we hate seeing it and we really desperately want to get to the bottom of what happened,” Strivelli said. “At this point we’re still in the theory phase. We don’t know what really happened……We have actually tried our best to identify the nationality of the child, but we cannot rule out anyone.”

On Monday, detectives released a sketch drawn by a forensics artist, depicting what the infant likely looked like.

Authorities continue to investigate and are unsure if the baby fell from a boat or if someone dumped her into the water. They also wouldn’t specify if the infant showed signs of abuse. They did indicate that the baby girl appeared to have been healthy when she died.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact Detective Cliff Hamilton at 561-488-4155 or hamiltonc@pbso.org.

The story is still developing. Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.